Peter Darvill-Evans
| sampleimage = | birthdate = | birthplace = , | deathdate = | deathplace = | website = }} Peter Darvill-Evans (born 1954, , ) is a British writer and editor. Biography Early Life He lived in Buckinghamshire until he went to university, graduating in 1975 from , with a degree in . Career In 1976 Darvill-Evans joined the staff of , a specialist games shop in London. He became the manager of a branch of the shop, then manager of wholesale sales, selling board games and eventually role-playing games. In 1979 he became employed by Games Workshop, becoming first its Trade Sales Manager, then General Manager, responsible for purchases, sales, distribution and magazine publishing. When Games Workshop relocated to , Darvill-Evans left the company, preferring to stay in London. He then wrote his first of three Fighting Fantasy gamebooks for Puffin Books. In 1989, he became the a junior editor at , initially overseeing the imprint. He also oversaw the imprint of erotic fiction for men, redesigning its logo and cover style as well as changing its editorial direction. Target's main output was novelisations of the popular science-fiction television series , and when Darvill-Evans arrived he immediately realised that there were very few Doctor Who stories left to novelise. This problem was exacerbated by the cancellation of the television series at the end of 1989. When WH Allen sold the Nexus and Doctor Who lines to , Darvill-Evans went with them. Deciding to go freelance, he was made redundant at his own request, and entered negotiations with the to licence Virgin to produce full-length, original novels carrying on the story of the series from the point where the television programme had left off. Launched in 1991, this hugely-successful line of novels were known as the " ". Darvill-Evans set down guidelines for the writers, and even wrote one novel himself, . Other output from the Virgin fiction department during his time there included another series of Doctor Who novels (the " ", featuring previous Doctors and companions); a series of novels following the character of ; the " " imprint of new mainstream science-fiction and fantasy novels. Non-science fiction lines included , the first mainstream erotic fiction imprint targeted at women; the imprint; , a homoerotic fiction imprint for men; and , a lesbian erotica line. Other successes included media-tie in books such as the , which served as the template for guides about other cult television series, and a series of novelisations based on the -scripted series starring . By 1997, however, Virgin Publishing decided to emphasise more non-fiction books by and about celebrities. Their license renewal negotiations fell in 1996, a year in which the BBC was seeking to bring all the Doctor Who licenses back in house. Consequently Virgin's Doctor Who license was not renewed and instead the BBC opted to launch their own series of Doctor Who novels. In 1998, Darvill-Evans managed the editing and production of , and personally supervised the copy-editing and proofreading of 's autobiography . Virgin closed its fiction department in 1999, with Darvill-Evans departing the company and moving to . He continued to freelance, writing several Doctor Who novels for , amongst various other editing and writing work. In 2001 he began working for the , and is currently an . Bibliography ''Fighting Fantasy'' Writer ''Fighting Fantasy'' Gamebooks *(#25) Beneath Nightmare Castle (Puffin, 1987) *(#37) Portal of Evil (Puffin, 1989) *(#45) Spectral Stalkers (Puffin, 1991) ''Warlock'' Magazine Darvill-Evans was Publications Manager of Warlock for Issues 6 through to and including Issue 9 as well Assistant Editor for Issue 6. Outside Fighting Fantasy Writer ''Doctor Who'' *''Time Lord'' ( , 1991) (a gamebook with ) *''Deceit'' (Virgin, 1993) *''Independence Day'' ( , 2000) *''Asylum'' (BBC Books, 2001) Other Works *''The New Story of O'' (1990, translation) *Seven pseudonymous novels for the imprint between 1991 and 2002 See Also External Links References Category:Fighting Fantasy Authors